She will pursue her lovers, but she won't catch up with them. She will seek them, but she won't find them. Then she will say, "I'll go back and return to my first husband, because it was better for me then than now.'

I told her, "You will remain with me a long time, you won't be promiscuous, you won't be involved with any man, and I'll do the same."

Foreigners have consumed his strength, and he hasn't noticed. Furthermore, his head is sprinkled with gray hair, but he doesn't realize it.

Assyria won't save us; we won't be riding on horses, Nor will we be saying anymore to the work of our hands, "You are our God." Indeed, in you the orphan finds mercy.'

"Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, yet don't let Judah offend; and don't come to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth Aven, nor swear, 'As Yahweh lives.'

Their deeds won't allow them to turn to their God; for the spirit of prostitution is within them, and they don't know Yahweh.

"Look how I'm blocking her path with thorns and building a wall to hinder her, so she can't find her way.

She didn't recognize that it was I who provided her grain, wine, and oil, and it was I who gave her silver, while they crafted gold for Baal.

They will eat, but will not be satisfied. They will engage in prostitution, but they won't increase, because they have stopped listening to the LORD.

However, I'm not going to punish your daughters when they commit prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, because their men are themselves immoral they offer sacrifices with prostitutes. These people who aren't discerning will stumble.

"Don't celebrate, Israel, like other nations would rejoice, because you left your God by committing fornication, loving the profit you gained on all of the threshing floors.

They won't present wine offerings to the LORD, nor will they please him. Their sacrifices will seem like food for mourners everyone who eats them will become unclean; none of them will enter the Temple of the LORD.

"How can I give up on you, Ephraim? I will deliver you, will I not, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? I can't make you like Zeboim, can I? My heart stirs within me; my compassion also fans into flame!

"There's iniquity in Gilead, isn't there? They have become truly vain. They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal; their altars are like piles of stone in furrowed fields.